David Blunkett has launched a new attempt to pass legislation to outlaw incitement to religious hatred.

The home secretary warned on Wednesday that extremists were using a loophole in current anti-discrimination laws to target Muslims.

But the government will face difficulties passing the legislation through the House of Lords, which has already blocked the plans once.

Blunkett announced that the new law would be similar to existing legislation outlawing the incitement of racial hatred.

He added that the law could also be used against extremists who attack Christians, as well as providing greater protection for Muslims.

"We have to face down extremism and racism in all its forms if we are to promote a positive, inclusive sense of British identity and citizenship which newcomers feel welcome to commit to and which established communities feel proud of be part of," Blunkett told a seminar organised by the Institute for Public Policy Research.

He said the move would "help tackle extremists who use religion to stir up hatred in our society, including religious extremists who preach hate against other religions".

The home secretary said the proposals would were part of a joined up government approach to addressing the issue of diversity.

"The government has already introduced tougher penalties for racial and religious hate crime," he said.

"We tried unsuccessfully to introduce an offence of incitement to religious hatred in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks but I hope we will now have the parliamentary backing to put this in law."

Blunkett said the plans were currently at consultation stage.

"This is an important part of the debate and I want to ensure that people take the opportunity of making these points in the context of the ongoing consultation on the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights," he added.

"We also need to be clear that in Britain integration is not about assimilation into a common culture so that original identities are lost.

"We can and should be proud of the sense of nationhood we feel to the nations within Britain as well as to Britain as a whole. In short, our approach is pragmatic, based on common sense, allowing people to express their identity within a common framework of rights and responsibilities."

Scepticism

However, there was scepticism about whether the government's plans would prove workable.

Shadow attorney general Dominic Grieve said the Conservatives would back legislation to tackle religious discrimination, but not incitement to religious hatred.

"The incitement offence will not provide protection under any circumstances on discrimination grounds but will provide a fetter on people expressing publicly views that are regarded as being hostile or unpleasant to members of particular religious faiths," he told the BBC.

"Now, I can understand why the home secretary is trying to do that, but it does pose some quite difficult issues about freedom of speech because it will cover, for instance, devil worshipers as well as mainstream religious faiths.

"And I think we have to be very careful from preventing people from expressing, in ways that are compatible with the ordinary rule of law, a dislike of other religions."

And Labour peer Lord Desai said the plans faced a "lot of difficulties".

"We will get in a real muddle if we take religion as a basis for prosecution rather than race," he told the Today programme.

And he predicted the legislation would have "a very, very difficult time" in the Lords.